The present disclosure relates to a health monitoring system, and more particularly to a real-time fault detection and isolation system.
Helicopter rotor systems may be subject to a number of fault types such as imbalance, track splits, cracks, defects, and freeplay or friction in the pitch control systems, lag systems and flap systems. Early detection and diagnoses of these fault conditions facilitates the reduction of aircraft maintenance costs and further enhances flight safety.
Under a fixed flight condition and in the absence of other disturbances, detection and diagnoses of fault types may be determined by measurement of rotor hub loads. However, nominal hub loads are a strong function of aircraft flight condition, pilot inputs, and other disturbances. The magnitude of hub load changes from flight conditions, pilot inputs, and disturbances is significant enough to effectively obscure the effect of rotor system faults on hub loads.